How I Lost My Terrier Card

It’s easy. Really. Even the second time.

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How I Lost My Terrier Card

It’s easy. Really. Even the second time.

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How I Lost My Terrier Card

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University News

How I Lost My Terrier Card

November 7, 2016
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It’s the card that literally opens doors. All registered BU students get one. The BU Terrier Card allows you to swipe in to dining halls, residence halls, and FitRec. You can use it to check out library books from Mugar, and if you buy convenience points, you can redeem them at the GSU, dining halls, Raising Caine’s, and City Convenience stores with your card. Interested in free admission to world-class museums like the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Institute of Contemporary Art? Flash your card. And a student discount is yours by showing it to salesclerks at certain stores (Vineyard Vines and JCrew to name two).

And yes, when you lose your card, it’s a problem—a very common problem. Marc Robillard, Auxiliary Services executive director of housing and dining, says his department issues about 3,000 replacement cards every year. The record holder, he recalls, lost his card 11 times over the course of his undergraduate career.

If you lose your card, you can get a replacement at the Terrier Card office, in the lower level of the GSU. The catch? A new one will cost you $40.

Bill Politis can be reached at bpolitis@bu.edu.

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    Bill Politis is a documentary filmmaker based in Boston. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 18 comments on How I Lost My Terrier Card

  1. The replacement costs is a little expensive compared to $25 from my previous college.
    So far, I didn’t lose mine and it’d be nice if the ID cards had small key holes

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  3. Cards are fragile and will probably break if a hole is punched through them (The corner with the hole will break off, possibly ruining the RFID chip inside.) Cards should be attached to a retractable key-chain that clips to the owner’s belt. While BU does have some fairly good plastic/rubber clips to hold the card to a keychain (or other device), these, too, are somewhat fragile and less “grippy” than they could be. Still, I’ve found this combination to be the best solution so far, only losing my card once or twice when the rubber clip that held it broke off or wore out and the card dropped off of it.

    I think (please don’t flame me!) that it is likely that card-losses will drop significantly if the price to replace a lost card went up to $100.00. Just sayin’… People tend to be pretty careful of valuable things!

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    2. I agree that that it is likely that card-losses will drop significantly if the price to replace a lost card went up to $100.00.

      All the people on the video are “LOSERS”

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  9. I lost my terrier card, and now, I always write down my name and phone number on my terrier card, charile card, every card I have, I think it is better now..

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  10. Tuition is $49,000 plus fees and BU wants to charge $40 for a new one. Talk about nickeling and diming students. If I loose my credit card, Visa or MasterCard doesn’t charge me for a replacement. And I don’t pay them anything! Let along $49K a year. BU should allow you to put the Terrier Card on your smart phone like you do with your Starbucks card.

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  11. It’s quite simple to look up someone’s email with the BU Directory and let them know you’ve found their lost Terrier Card. I wonder how many lost cards are found by others but never returned.

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  13. Funny story. I am a 15-year BU staff employee. All staff are also issued Terrier cards, they read Faculty/Staff. When I was hired in 2002, I had a REALLY bushy beard and fairly unkempt hair. I called it in retrospect my “terrorist” card since I looked really wild, I don’t think any airline would let me on a flight if they saw that photo?? So in 2007, I went into Buick Street to get a new card, so as to solve this “problem”. They asked why I needed a new card, did I lose mine, I explained I didn’t like the picture anymore (I had trimmed my beard a bit etc), and they said it’s going to cost you $30. I agreed since this would be worth it to me. They sat me down, took my picture, printed the card, and said “good to see you, have a nice day”. No payment requested! I guess they appreciated my quandary!! (Think Jerry or Pigpen back in the day!).

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